A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Update on Palestine by an American Activist there |
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| yunus |
| 07/14/02 at 22:59:28 |
| General Update The general situation in the occupied territories is one of uncertainty and mixed messages. Most major cities have been under curfew for about 1 week. Yesterday, curfew in bethlehem and Hebron was lifted during the day. One student who needed to take exams in bethleem said he had no probelems going and returning. Students who tried to go to their exams in Hebron were met with fire from Israeli snipers. Apparently they were just joking about lifting curfew in Hebron. Similar stories have been told about oter citied when curfew is lifted. Wveryone goes out to try to do the things that could not do and are met with unprovoked gunfire and even death. The curfew in Bethlehem and Hebron as been reinstated today. A Number of people including a woman and two children have been killed by the miltary in gaza and several young men ave been killed in Nablus. All of this without 1 suicide bomb in almost 1 month. There seems to be much disillusionment, sadness, frustration and fear in the palestinian population (shaby falastiny). With the PA destroyed and the reinstitution of Israeli occupation, people do not see any hope in sight. Most people just want to work and provide for their families. There seems few options for proactive resistance let alone for anything beyond sitting, talking, watching television and trying not to think about the dark possibilities that might lie ahead. My Update Upon invitation, our group of 4 internationals left Hebron on the 7th with a Christian Peacemaker Teams reservist to a Hebron suburb called Beit Omar. (Christian Peacemkaer Teams are a solidarity group that has been working in the Hebron District for more than 15 years. For more Information, please see www.cpt.org) At over 3000 ft above sea level, Beit Omar is one of the highest points in palestine. From the town you can see the lights of Jaffa (tel-aviv) and can dream faintly of the mediteranean as the sun sets shades of setiment. Beit Omar is a farming community and produces some of the best fruit (ghogh) in all of palestine. I have never tasted fruit in the states that comes near to the fruit in palestine. Watermelon (batiech), Cantelope (shamaa), and so many types of plumbs and peaches it is difficult to keep track of them all. Beit Omar is a town of about 12,000 and about half as many tractors (by far the most sylish way to ride around the town). The people are unbelivably generous and friendly and it s difficult to find the time to sit and drink tea with everyone who invites us. The surrounding lands of the town are farms and orchards where the people go to work in the morning and evening. These farms have been in family for many years and I have had the priviege to see their families land deeds and recipts of sale from the ottoman empire and british occpuation. Houses are teraced with grape vines, everyting is green and the air is sweet. Many people from Beit Omar have relatives in the States (especially in Chicago) and (sadly) as in most of the world, even the chidren know a little English. Just like any small town, everyone wants to know who we are. There is an initial suspicion that we are Israeli soldiers, especially the children. Many of the younger children become very afraid and cry when they see us. When we tell people we are American, they want to know about Bush and what Americans think about palestine. There is a sense that the American people hold all of palestine in their hand and can crush it in one sneeze. They are confused about the way Bush speaks about the situation and this causes them much stress. They ask why America supports the israelis and gives the weapons. When they talk with us longer, many tell us that to palestinians, America is the great devil. We try to put the people at ease by putting our politics out in the open from the start. That we are against our governments policies and sad that people support the beast that is 'America'. This puts them at ease to discuss thier feelings about the American government. Despite their feeling about what America does, most people would like to go to America and reguard it as a great country. Many people ask us if we can get them a visa or if they can visit us. There seems to be a deep pull for them toward 'America' but a relative misunderstanding about the realities in America. When we tell them that there are thousands of homeless in our cities, they are astounded. When we tell them about the size of our country, they cannot imagine. When we tell them we dont like the backstreet boys, they wounder why. When we tell them that the dreamlike images of beautifull people and hapiness that they see on television are lies, they do not believe us. Beit Omar is in the north of the Hebron district and sits between two israeli settlements: Karmet sur to the southwest and Gush Set-zion to the north. to the west, the town runs into and over Route 60, a major israeli settlement highway. The road that once connected the town to Highway 60 is closed with a big mound of dirt and rubble (maksum) and a fortified military position that was made in a Beit Omar family's confiscated home. No cars can enter or exit the town except for the Petrol truck who must supply his own bulldozer to remove and replace the maksum when he makes a delivery. The garbage trucks cannot enter the town, nor can trucks or cars leave the town unless they take dirt roads in creative ways trough the fields. Ambulances cannot enter the town and must carry patients over the maksum when they pick them up or drop them off. The first nigt we were in Beit Omar, a young chid drank poison and becuase the abulance could not get into the town (and had to navigate checkpoints and soldiers from hebron), the child did not get to the hospital in time and is now in a severe coma. If the chidren's hospital was not close by in hebron, the child probably would have died. Military Aggression The people of Beit Omar are under attack in many ways. The first is direct military agression and terror. Twice in the last week, the militray has entered the town at sunset and shot hundrends of rounds. The army shoots the windows in the houses, put holes in the water tanks that supply the people with water and have damaged electricity lines. They provoke confrontations with the youth by shooting and beating and tem demostrate their dominance by forcing their way through the streets with gunfire, both live and rubber coated metal, military grade tear gas, percussion grenades and armored vehicles. On the second evening of this aggression, our group went out into the streets to make our presamce know to the army, with the hope that seeing internationals might disuade them from doing anything too atrocious or at least to confuse and distract them from their project of terror. We walked in the street and took a place at a corner where we knew the army would pass and watched up the street. We saw them advance and without provocation one soldier (jundi) seized a young man infrom of a closed store and beat him with his fist, boots and gun. Youth tried to come to his defense with stones and were met with live fire from and M16. We moved around the coner and asked the help of a young man to get to a place that we could see but were not in the middle of children and soldiers. He led us to an alley that cut into the the main street were the soldiers had arrested the man they were beating and were holding a position against the youth trowing stones. we took pictures and were discovered by the soldiers. The shooting ceased and the soldiers tried to decide who we were and what to do with us. One soldier told us to leave. Where? we asked nievely. "There is shooting al around, we are sacred" They stoped conversation and one soldier was placed at the corner to watch us. Anoter soldier came and yelled at us to move back, this time pointing his gun at us. We moved back out of sight and waited as the soldiers retreated from the youth and moved down another street. We migrated with the people into the main square and talked with them to get information about the beating and to keep watch becuase we knew the soldiers would return that way again. After about 10 minutes of some tense decisionmaking, we decided the most strategic and safe place to be was in the main square and took seats on the steps of a shop there. An armored landrover schreeced into the square and the children scattered into the alleys and behind corners. The landrover sat, perhaps confused and watching us, perhaps waiting for reinforcements or to survey the situation, peraps challenging the chidren to do something. BOOM. A skull sized boulder broke the armored windsheild of the landrover and put a huge dent in the hood. Two soldiers jumped out and began firing into the houses and stores. We stood up and slowly walked out of the square and around the corner where we sat at an open sweets shop. Soon we were overcome with tears gas and took refuge with the store patrons in the back. We returned to watch the soldiers shooting the windows in houses as they advanced up the street - 6 foot soldiers, two armored landrovers and 1 armored personel carrier. There are no armed people in Beit Omar, only cildren with stones and a comunity who is hungry, without income, tired of intermittent curfew and living under military occupation. People ask wy the soldiers behave in this way, but it is difficult to come to any conclusion other than spreading terror in the people. There is not security threat to them, it seems like that are only trying to assert their dominace. Many people try to rationalize this as military training or bordem. Structural Violence This military aggression is not the most heinous attack upon the people of Beit Omar. More inhumane physical violence is structural violence. Economic Strangulation is the predominant israeli policy in Biet Omar. On June 24th, 12 Trucks from Beit Omar along with 8 trucks from other areas in the Hebron district, carrying over 300 tons of fruit for export were stopped at the Tarkamian checkpoint and detained until the 30th. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of fruit, representing a whole years work for many families, were destroyed that week. Beyond closure, unemployment and curfew, Israeli settlers continue to pose a significant and seemingly immovable threat to te community. The settlements were initiated following the 1967 war in which the west bank and gaza were taken by the israeli army. Despite international law and United Nations Resolutions, Israel has begun to settle their popolation into the occupied land. The land for these settlements was not empty, but was part of towns and peoples farms. Since 1967, the settlements ave expanded continuously and every year, despite numerous peace agreements incuding the Oslo Peace Accords, Karmet sur has taken farms lands from the people in Beit Omar. Land Confiscation Last week, the settlment reclassified about 30 acres of land as a 'closed military area' under the auspicies of security for the settlment, and barred the owners of the land from harvesting their fruit. We accompanied a number of farmers to their land with the hope of helping to deal with the soldiers amd settlers. We arrived to the land at about 7am ready for the days work. We began to pick plumbs and peaces from the trees, but only worked for about 15 minutes before armed settler security made a round and sped of to the settlement to get the soldiers. Within 5 minutes, the settler security returned with a soldier who told us to leave. We talked with him and tried to persude him that we were obviosly not a security thret and that these farmes had a right to farm their land. The settler yeled and waived his uzi at us while we calmly tried to discuss the matter with them. The soldier became angry and thretened arrest. As we left with the farmers, more soldiers arrived and watched us as we walked back to the town. The farmers ave opened a formal legal complaint with the government, but have been deferred for some time. The settlement has already began constuction of a fence and security lights around the seized land. Becuase they are in a directly israeli controlled area and that there is functionaly no more palestinian government, there is not place for the people to go to presure the authorities. The only place that has been suggested to them is the police station in Kiriat Arba, the settlement of Baruch Goldstien and the only way is by the settlement road. This precludes the people from engaging in any type of governmental process. People twell us that the settlers used to be eld accountable and sometimes were even arrested by israeli police, but this seems to be a thing of the past. The settlers seem almost untouchable now. The International Solidarity Movement as decided to take an apartment/office near the settlment and have committed to work with the people in Beit Omar for at least 1 month against the military and settlement aggresion. We wil be working closely with Christian Peacemaker Teams who also have and apartment there. We saw last night on Al-Jezera that 'our great country America' bombed Iraq and we are afraid that a larger campiagn in iraq will increase tensions here as it did in the Gulf War and as a friend said 'turn sharon's green light to neon' Inshallah this will not happen. Please keep the people of palestine (and in all the world) in your thoughts and prayers. Keep working to educate and resist American support for this constant catastophe. The people here are happy and to know that people care and are trying to help. I do not have internet in Beit Omar, so dont be angry if i dont write very often. I do have a telephone. Please feel free to call and talk. horia falasteen freedom for palestine Matt 011 972 6 734 9442 |
| 07/19/02 at 00:02:31 |
| jannah |
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